Legend:

These instructions have only been checked for GHC 6.12.1 on Solaris 10 on SPARC. It should mostly apply to later versions of GHC, Solaris 8 and later and perhaps Solaris on x86.

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These instructions have only been checked for GHC 6.12.1 on Solaris 10 on SPARC. It should mostly apply to later versions of GHC, Solaris 8 and later and perhaps Solaris on x86.

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A common theme in these instructions is the issue that required tools and libraries are not part of the standard system set and the need for us to set various flags to tell the build system where to find them.

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GHC versions 6.10.1 and earlier don't have a working SPARC native code generator, and have many small build issues with Solaris. Use GHC 6.12.1 or later.

On Solaris 10, `/usr/bin/gcc` is a version that uses Sun's code generator backend. This is completely unusable for GHC because GHC has to post-process (mangle) the assembly output of GCC. It expects the format and layout that the normal GCC uses.

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On Solaris 10, `/usr/bin/gcc` is "GCC for Sun Systems (gccfss)". This is a version that uses Sun's code generator backend. This is completely unusable for GHC because GHC has to post-process (mangle) the assembly output of GCC. It expects the format and layout that the normal GCC uses.

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The version of `/usr/sfw/bin/gcc` on Solaris 10 is 3.4.x which has problems, see below.

But such a gcc version is sufficient for most user programs in case you just installed a ghc binary distribution.

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== Using GMP from a non-standard location ==

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The gmp library is not a standard system library on Solaris. It can usually be installed from a third party binary package collection or built from source. Either way it will usually not be on the standard cpp include path or the standard static linker path, or the standard dynamic linker path.

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We can handle the first two aspects with these `./configure` flags `--with-gmp-includes` and `--with-gmp-libraries`.

However to actually run programs compiled by ghc (such as stage1) that use gmp from this location we need to link them in such a way that they will find the gmp lib at runtime. The best way is to use the `-R` linker flag to 'bake in' the right path.

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This can be specified in the `mk/build.mk` file by using:

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{{{

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SRC_HC_OPTS=-optl-R/opt/csw/lib

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}}}

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TODO: check this works, it was only tested with a bootstrapping ghc that always used the above flag, baked into the driver shell script. In that case only `GhcStage2HcOpts=-optl-R/opt/csw/lib` was needed.

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Additionally, the `--with-gmp-`* flags ensure that when using the resulting ghc, that it will be able to link programs to gmp. That is `ghc --make Hello.hs` will actually compile because it will pass `-L/opt/csw/lib` when linking it. However as before, while it links this does not ensure that the resulting program will run. We also need to tell the dynamic linker to look in the gmp lib dir. To get ghc to pass `-R` as well as `-L` we need to alter the registration information for the rts package.

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Note that this currently needs to be done after installation. See #2933 about integrating it into the build process.

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{{{

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ghc-pkg describe rts > rts.pkg

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vim rts.pkg

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ghc-pkg update rts.pkg

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}}}

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In the editing step you need to add the `-R/path/to/gmp/lib` to the `ld-options` field.

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Again, if you are building a relocatable binary package then you will want to avoid `-L` or `-R` linker flags being baked in and instead require that the end user set an appropriate `$LD_LIBRARY_PATH`.

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== Using readline from a non-standard location ==

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As with gmp, we need to tell `./configure` about the location of `readline`. Be careful here because it may look like you are building with readline support when in fact you are not.

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Using the `--with-gmp-includes=` `--with-gmp-libraries=` flags are enough to get the top level `./configure` script to believe that using readline will work, if you happen to have gmp and readline installed under the same prefix. However it is not enough for the Haskell readline package's configure script. Unfortunately that one gets run half way through the build process (after building stage1) and if it fails it does so silently and the readline feature is simply not used. This means you end up with a useless ghci. See #2970.

Note that to use split objects at the moment you need your gcc to default to the SPARC V9 ABI or to tell ghc to tell gcc to use the V9 ABI it when assembling (`-opta-mcpu=v9`) otherwise you'll hit bug #2872.

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== Putting it all together ==

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This example uses ghc-6.8.3 on Solaris 10, using gmp and other tools installed in `/opt/csw`. The gcc is 4.1.2 installed in `/opt/ghc-vanilla/4.1.2/bin`. The bootstrapping ghc is the binary from the ghc download page installed in `/opt/ghc-bin`.

Remember of course that you must use GNU make, not the system make. The Solaris 10 `/usr/sfw/bin/gmake` should do. Any other GNU make that you install from a third party repository should also be ok.

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{{{

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gmake -j4

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}}}

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If you are lucky enough to have a box with lots of CPU cores then use them! Sadly the maximum number that it can actually use effectively is around 4. Hopefully the new build system in ghc-6.11 and later will be able to use more.

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It is worth checking at this point that ghc will run without `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` set:

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{{{

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unset LD_LIBRARY_PATH

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ldd compiler/stage2/ghc-6.8.3

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}}}

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This should report all libs as being found. (If you expect to use readline then check it is also linked to readline.)

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Now to install:

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{{{

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sudo gmake install

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}}}

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Remember that you will now need to modify the `rts` package for the newly installed ghc so that the programs it builds will be able to find the gmp lib at runtime. See the section above on using gmp from a non-standard location for more details.